Leggi l’articolo in italiano
It’s a young, very young society. But Argentario Med Yachting, owned by Italo Scotto and Fabiana Sclano, has a long boating tradition. They are involved in yacht selling, brokerage and management. They are starting their activity these months; with great energy and excellent result, they are gaining the trust of many shipowners. We had a chat with Italo Scotto, who told us the key to start off on the right foot.
“ The company we took over some years ago was a popular name, with a long tradition in the world of boating, since it had been founded in 1967. But it was another kind of boating.What we want now is to create a market able to collect this tradition while understanding what is really happening in this field in order to react accordingly”.
One might say that this is not probably the right moment. Crisis shows up, even if some encouraging signals are coming…. ” On the contrary, this is the best moment to be proud and start. If you wait for a better market, it will be too late. Of course, you must be aware of your actions”.
So, in fact, you have a long experience in this field. ” I come from Porto Ercole, I know boats and sea very well. I was a skipper and a captain for many years. The same goes for Fabiana Sclano, my partner in both business and life; she,too, has been working in this field for a very long time” .
But you experienced a “deviation” during your career…. ” Yes, after a boat tranfer in Montecarlo, I decided to stop there and start a new activity I still have alongside Argentario Med Yachting: I’m a Fifa players’ agent. In 2012, however, I came back to Italy”.
How do you manage your jobs? “First of all, because I have Fabiana. Then, because my job as players’ agent can be done in motion, from anywhere in the world and by travelling a lot, with an iPad always in my hands. It’s not a desk job, of course, it requires high organisational skills” .
Let’s come back to boating. ” This moment, the market is difficult and saturated. There are more boats than money, each boat seems to be for sale, thus we need to be very professional and have a precise identity”.
Can you tell us what makes you different? ” A thing I’ve understood is that, especially in the case of bigger boats, the matter is not only to sell or rent a boat. It’s a more difficult work. We need to know our boats very well and love them”.
An interesting concept, can you explain it better, please? “Let me give you an example. A customer of mine wanted to sell a beautiful almost new Riva 80 but it was in the yard, covered with dust. Thus, it was not particularly attractive. I proposed a management agreement through which I took the boat, I refurbished it, I made it “sexy” and I took it on water again. Any owner, this way, needs no crew and he has a perfect yacht to sell, rent or, if he changed his mind, to enjoy. This is only a specific case but it explains our startegy very well. We take over the management of each boat at 100%”.
